best ways to save money on food: COLLEGE EDITION 🌸

My bf (now fiancé) and I always had financial stability as we both graduated debt free thanks to scholarships. But that didn't make us any less frugal during college and even now. Here's how we save thousands on food during college.

1. Meal prepping and buying your own groceries. It's crazy how much money you can save when you plan instead of buying random things while at the store. Shopping at Aldi and Trader Joes also saved us a lot of money. They really do have great prices, and we still shop at those locations.

2. Free food from campus

Our college reduced food waste by repackaging dining hall food and turning them into frozen meals. These were free, so we would take 2-3 meals each every week. Very few students utilized this program and should definitely be promoted better. Every Wednesday, there were really good meals made by students (sometimes vegetarian or vegan) where you paid what you could. We usually would give $5 each for these.

3. Make coffee at home - I know coffee is such a college essential

I was gifted a Keurig and used it a few times per week. To change things up, I would also buy pre-made coffee (like STOK) for $5 and that would make about 5 -6 iced coffees. All you had to do was had creamer. $1/coffee was way better than $6-7 coffees that tasted the same.

4. Bought dry goods in bulk

While keeping our apartment size (we had many roommates) in mind, we would buy some of our dry goods from Costco. My favorite was the 12 pack of almond milk for about $12. It's soo much better that paying $3/carton for non-dairy milk in the fridge. They also had 6 packs of oatmilk for about $10.

5. FREEZE (or juice) FRUITS AND VEGGIES BEFORE THEY GO BAD

I know it may seem easier to throw them away, but this is where food and money waste come into play. If you buy produce from TJ's, it typically goes bad fast since it's usually organic. If we can't finish it in time, we freeze them for smoothies or make fresh juice out of it. We were given a juicer for Christmas but they're about $100-150 on Amazon. Besides, cold pressed juices can go for $8+ at some grocery stores.

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